


even time seems to stop

by shrdmdnssftw



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 14:09:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrdmdnssftw/pseuds/shrdmdnssftw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And that's the thing, isn't it? Because it's Niall's birthday today, and Harry literally invited him to share cake with them, and he <em>wants</em> to wish Niall a happy birthday, wants to do more than that, is hitting himself over the head for not knowing, but the thing is he doesn't really<em> know</em> Niall. Doesn't think that the fact that Niall smiles at him across the courtyard sometimes counts for anything much, because Niall will smile at everyone. Liam thinks he once caught Niall smiling at the mascot of the local footy team. Not even a person in the mascot suit, but the actual head and zip-up suit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	even time seems to stop

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ragegoddess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ragegoddess/gifts).



> Happy fricken birthday to my S (also, heyo, you're the S to my B). I hope you like this and that you have a wonderful day. I love you loads!

It all happens on Niall's birthday, because if there's one thing on Liam's side, it's his timing.

Of course, it's only because he doesn't  _know_ it's Niall's birthday that anything happens at all. He finds out when, on the way to English class that morning, he almost trips over Harry Styles, who seems to be carrying the largest cake box Liam's ever laid eyes on.

"Sorry, oh god, I'm so sorry," he says, hands reaching out to grab Harry by the shoulders and steady him. "Crap, you alright?"

"'m fine," Harry says, cheerfully, but his eyes are focused on the box in his hands. "Cake was already smushed anyway from the car ride in, but it's not like Nialler'll mind much. 's more for the taste, really."

Harry speaks to Liam with a familiarity that's probably a bit out of the blue, considering their only real link is their mutual friend Louis, but it's a part of his character.

Lifting the lid of the cake, Harry shows Liam the mess inside - a multicoloured disaster of pinks and browns and creams that might've once been a Neapolitan cake but were now just delicious crumbs and icing.

"Oh," Liam says, because he doesn't really know what else to say. "Uh, it still smells nice?"

"Thanks mate," says Harry with a grin. "Baked it myself. Oh, you know what? You should try some!"

And Liam wants to protest that there's no time, that he's already late for class and Ms Minogue, as nice as she may be, will think so poorly of him, but then Harry's talking again.

"Yeah, 'm sure Niall won't mind. Come over at lunch, if you've not got anything to do."

The saddest thing is that Harry doesn't even need to tell Liam where they'll be, nor does he wait for a response before trotting off to whatever it is that he has on now. It's probably because he knows Liam has nothing else to do, that Liam sits with Zayn on the benches outside the art block and watches as Louis and Harry hang about the edges of the courtyard, Niall usually laughing along with them, voice loud enough to be heard from all over.

Not that Liam takes particular notice of Niall's laugh, or the way that his eyes scrunch up, all happy looking, and the way he throws his head back, exposes the line of his neck. 

Zayn likes to tease Liam for blanking out often, during their lunch breaks, and Liam likes to point out that the multiple sketches of Louis' smile in his art book makes him just as bad. (It's a good thing that Liam's friendship with Zayn goes back a little further than his friendship with Louis, else he might have reason to shove the two together. As it is, it's hard not to blurt it out every time the Tomlinson's come over for dinner)

The second warning bell rings in the hallway and Liam all but sprints to his classroom, trying to avoid any more bump ins on his way.

It's when he's at the door, bursting in to see Ms Minogue's unimpressed face that he realises, oh yeah, he's actually got a spare that morning. Not English. 

Though apparently there  _is_  an English class going on, and Liam glances around to hear the snickers of Zayn and, to his horror, Niall and Louis.

"Keen on attending some extra classes, Mr Payne?" Ms Minogue asks. "Because I don't think you're on the roll for this lesson. Try next period."

Liam flushes, deep red, and mutters a  _sorry, wrong room_ , and you'd think he'd be used to it, being his final year of sixth form, but it's still a weird concept, having some mornings free.

He backs out of the classroom, shutting the door behind him, but not before accidentally catching Niall's eye, who smiles in a friendly way.

Liam walks to the library and tries to convince himself that the fluttering of his heart is all down to running. Despite the fact that he's made track three years in a row. And that he didn't even break a sweat.

Yeah, running.

-

The library is quiet and almost empty, most schedules allowing for free afternoons, where sixth formers skive off early, but Liam has training after school anyway, so he'd opted for the free mornings, and a sleep in, which doesn't exactly work when he forgets about it.

His phone beeps, loud in the empty space, and the librarian's head pops up like a meerkat, searching for the source of disruption. Liam slams a hand to his pocket, presses random buttons frantically to stop the noise and calms when the grey hair of the librarian pops back down behind the counter.

Quickly putting his phone on silent, Liam checks the message that is, unsurprisingly, from Zayn.

"Smooth job." it reads. "Way to get Niall's attn. On his bday."

And yeah, that'd be what Zayn focuses on, not that Liam'd made the same mistake three weeks in a row.

"didnt even kno it was his bday" Liam texts back frantically. "& shouldnt u b payin attn in class?"

He waits five minutes for a response, tries to make a dent in the maths homework he has, and then two more texts come through, one after the other.

"Sure you didnt" says the first, followed by, "Group stuff. Louis says Hi."

Liam wants to curse under his breath because he knows now, for a fact, that the two are taking the mickey out of him - it's actually the only way they talk to each other, beyond the occasional  _hi_ in the hallways.

And that's the thing, isn't it? Because it's Niall's birthday today, and Harry literally invited him to share cake with them, and he  _wants_ to wish Niall a happy birthday, wants to do more than that, is hitting himself over the head for not knowing, but the thing is he doesn't really  _know_ Niall. Doesn't think that the fact that Niall smiles at him across the courtyard sometimes counts for anything much, because Niall will smile at everyone. Liam thinks he once caught Niall smiling at the mascot of the local footy team. Not even a person in the mascot suit, but the actual head and zip-up suit.

Liam's phone buzzes once more, another incoming text, this time from Louis.

"Good job zoning out thinking about Niall," it reads. "Also, invited Zayn for cake at lunch, ur coming too, Harry said."

He wants to say no, but Zayn'll probably get him sitting with the lot of them anyway (there's no way that he'll sit alone at lunch - he's not at that level of avoidance yet). Refusing to reply to Louis' taunt about Niall (and does  _everyone_  think that he likes him?), he texts back a simple "ok" and puts his phone away. There's thirty minutes till the start of next period, and he might as well soldier on for that time.

He manages to get halfway through a problem in the workbook before he realises that he's been doodling all the while, little love hearts that Andy's gonna give him shit about, should he ever go through Liam's notebooks. It's a good thing their interaction nowadays basically extends to their shared business studies class, and even then, Liam tends to gravitate towards Jade, the quiet but nice girl who's curls almost challenge his own.  _  
_

Liam scrubs a hand through his hair now, tries to fix it up some, because the wind today, coupled with the running earlier on, must be doing him wonders. Somehow, it's never quite as well settled as Harry's, but Zayn insists that Liam's hair makes him look sweet, whereas Harry's hair just is.

Thinking about Harry reminds him that Harry'd baked a cake for Niall, and that Liam had nothing, except maybe a lot of really shitty songs written vaguely about accents and blonde brown hair and blue eyes, none of which would ever see the light of day, ever. But he feels like he needs something, at least to be noticed, remembered by Niall, and because it's the guy's bloody birthday.

Checking his phone, there are twenty minutes until the next class, so Liam devotes five of them to finding his notepad, usually reserved for lyrics, tearing out a page, and setting up his best pens. He's now got a quarter of an hour to write the best damned card Niall has ever seen, and hopefully not be late for his next class.

-

"You're a massive dork, you know that, right?"

Zayn's his best friend. Best friend, for several years. He knows more about Zayn than anyone else, and they're pretty equal, blackmail material-wise.

Liam keeps this like a mantra in his head, because as nice as he usually is, there's only so many times Zayn can point out the obvious.

"A hand made card?"

Liam ducks his head, because there's actually a note of fondness in Zayn's voice, which means he's possibly being  _too_ dorky. Nothing endears a person to Zayn more than utter dorkmeister levels of dweebhood. 

"It's just a note, you know," Liam says, and he shoves the paper into his backpack. The bell for lunch is in three minutes, since Mr Kotecha was nice enough to release them early. That means he has three minutes to find a way to destroy all evidence of the card and possibly an excuse to not eat cake with Niall. And Harry, Louis and Zayn, of course. 

"Hey, c'mon, he's gonna love it," says Zayn earnestly.

"He loves everything, though," Liam all but moans.

"Exactly! You can't mess up. And what's the worst that'll happen? You'll actually talk to him beyond saying hi?"

Liam hefts his backpack on, waits for Zayn to sling his own messenger bag over his shoulder before dragging them both out into the hallway. "Yes, and then when I end up stuttering, or drooling all over him, I'm sure he'll find that attractive."

Zayn smirks. "So you admit you drool over him?"

Liam refuses to give an answer. They walk in relative silence, glad for the mostly empty corridors.

They're at the doors of the building, Niall's usual spot in eyesight when Zayn stops Liam.

"You could always sing, you know? Heard he likes a good voice. And you never stutter when you sing."

It's an idea, one that Liam doesn't shake off straight away, but he smiles and taps the strap of his backpack. "I'll just give him the card, y'know. Might as well, since I tried."

"Fine, but I'm pretty sure he'd go for you if he heard you sing," Zayn replies.

"I'd go for you," comes a voice near Liam's ear, and he startles. Somehow, he'd missed Louis' arrival, a feat considering the usual amount of noise and hubbub brought along with Louis. "With your singing, I mean. Your face is halfway decent too, I guess."

Liam turns to face Louis and spots Zayn's half glare, half pout in his peripheral vision. "Nothing compared to some others, though," Liam says, for his best friend's benefit, and while his eyes dart to Zayn, say _take a hint, Tommo_ , Louis' face turns to look behind them all.

"Yeah, Niall'll be coming, don't worry. He's not gonna miss his own cake. Him and Harry are just picking it up from the staff lounge now, but I said I'd round up the troops and make sure you two actually sat with us for once. I swear, Payner, it's like we barely know each other at school."

They  _do_ barely know each other at school, but Liam's not gonna be the one to point it out. He's not going to refuse a spot with their group either, knows that Zayn and himself actually get along with the others and just never had a reason to go over before. Instead, he focuses on the least important part of Louis's spiel, and blurts out, "the staff lounge?"

"That Caroline does love our Harry," replies Louis, with a smirk.

It takes a moment for Liam to realise he means the student teacher, Ms Flack, but by the time he figures it out, Zayn and Louis are out the door, headed over to the set of benches. Liam trails after them and tries to imagine anyone not loving Harry. It's pretty hard.

They make it to the area just as more kids spill forth from the main doors and Liam watches the crowds. 

"He's got his braces coming off in a few weeks," Louis says, and Liam doesn't even know how Louis figured out that Liam was wondering that.

"You're tapping your tongue against your teeth," Louis replies, and Liam when Liam opens his mouth, surprised, Louis continues. "Also, you're really obvious with your thoughts. Unlike our enigma here."

And he's looking at Zayn now, and Liam takes the chance to shift the focus off of him. "He's not an enigma. He likes Spider-Man too, most comics really, and you can take him out to see the latest Marvel film on Saturday - he's free, and hasn't seen it yet."

Zayn looks like he's gonna throttle Liam but then Louis actually perks up, and the flush on Zayn's cheeks seems to come up for a different reason, what with Louis'  _really?_ and the spiel on the  _genius of the scriptwriters, really, we have to see it together_. 

Their conversation leaves Liam free to grab the card from his bag, just in time for Niall and Harry's joint laughter to spill out over the quad.

It's like the sea of people separates for them, or maybe just the cake box and Niall's obnoxiously decorated "BIRTHDAY BOY" snapback (glitter glue courtesy of Daisy and Phoebe, Liam guesses).

They're already singing, horrifically out of tune, but Liam joins in anyway, once they're close enough. Niall's got this grin, ear-to-ear and it somehow gets brighter when he spots the three of them waiting for him. 

The noise gets through to Zayn and Louis' little bubble and they all stand up. Liam has to make sure he's not smiling too idiotically, but his cheeks seem to have an automatic mimicking response when it comes to Niall's smile.

"'s good to see ya," Niall says, and he slaps an arm around Liam like it's the most natural thing in the world. "Harry said you'd be comin', but I wasn't sure, and thought it'd be a shame if you weren't here on m' birthday."

"Oh," Liam says, and yeah, this is why he's always been worried about actually talking to Niall. Before his own tongue can mess him up, Liam all but shoves the card into Niall's hands, a muttered _yeah, uh, Happy Birthday_ escaping his lips.

"Aw, sweet, thanks man." And Niall's grin is enough to make Liam think that it'd be cool, sitting with them, being their friends. "These fuckers didn't get me nothing but cake. A man's gotta eat, but he's gotta have friends too, y'know?"

And Liam does sort of know, or at least, he thinks he might, if he sticks around a bit longer.

Niall throws his bag down onto the bench and then, when he notices Liam's still standing, shoves it aside. "Take a seat, Li," he says, then, "you don't mind me calling you Li, yeah?"

Liam shakes his head, and takes the spot next to Niall. Harry's got the cake box open and is distributing serviettes amongst them and also some of the people that have popped up in the meantime - some of the few other Irish lads in the school, including a Gaelic football player that Liam swears is too broad, too tall and possibly too handsome to still be in college.

Liam gets introduced to them all (Laura and Eoghan and Niall-call-me-Bressie) and more people besides, and Niall treats him like they're best mates. He tries not to flush too much at the smiles that they all give him, because they're acting like they know something he doesn't. 

Harry bumps him with his elbow, drags his attention away from the story that Niall's telling him about the time they went 'round back of the old house at the corner of Niall's street, and passes him a smush of cake.

"'s for Niall," Harry says, and nudges him again. 

Niall notices the interruption and opens his mouth to say something, but Harry nudges Liam a third time, except that Niall's closer now, leaning in, and Liam'd been leaning away from Harry in the aftermath of the first two pokes, and somehow, Niall ends up with a face full of cake.

Liam's absolutely mortified, starts apologising right away, and Louis, across from them, is whooping loudly in laughter. Liam can see the barely restrained smirk on Zayn's face and Harry's giggling behind them, but he can't  _actually_ see Niall's expression for all the chocolate icing and scrunched up expressions he's got on him.

"Crap, I'm  _so_ sorry Niall," and if Liam was anywhere close to getting to know Niall better, it's probably all gone down the drain now, in one quick smush of birthday cake. "It's your birthday too, here I-"

And he tries to find a clean serviette to dab at Niall's face at, except that Niall's licking at his lips instead, swiping a finger through the crumbs and mess on his cheeks and licking it off.

"Harry," Niall says. "This thing's bloody delicious."

That's it. Liam's going to be ignored for the rest of his life. Niall's not even gonna give him a response, and Liam ducks his head to pack up his bag, leave before Niall actually becomes hurtful, so he's not looking when Niall sweeps his finger through the chocolately mess again. He's not looking, and he misses it when Niall reaches out, doesn't notice until his face has a smear of cake down the side of it, sweet and sticky.

"Oh," Liam says, looking up, and Niall's still got one finger on his chin.

"Don't worry 'bout it, Liam, mate," Niall says, quieter, for the two of them only. Like he knows that Liam's sensitive about hurting others. "We're good."

"We are?" asks Liam, and either most of the group has moved off to eat their own lunches, or not watch the sop display happening.

"Yeah," replies Niall, and his smile is bright, catchy and Liam finds himself blushing, cheeks and mouth rounding out into a wide smile.

All of this, of course, means they miss it when Louis sneaks up on them, strawberry and vanilla pieces of cake in each hand, going unnoticed until he smears it in their hair, pushing them together until their lips brush.

Liam tastes chocolate and warmth and maybe sun, or Niall, but that's all he gets before Niall pulls back, a smirk on his face and the cake that Liam'd had in his hands. He throws a wink at Liam before getting up, turning to face Louis, and yelling that, "it's fuckin' on,Tommo."

Liam laughs, and turns to face Zayn, scraping some of the cake out of his hair before examining how much he can throw. 

Zayn balks, grabs Liam's backpack as a shield, says, "oh, no you don't."

-

In the end, the food fight only gets them a couple of days worth of detention, but it's all with Mr Cardle anyway, and he just encourages the five of them when they start singing along to the radio.

It sounds pretty good, if Liam says so himself. Maybe even better, with the way Niall smiles back at him.


End file.
